New SuikoGaiden
by Yarghish
Summary: [Post Suikoden III] Original main character and True Rune. Many returning characters and places. Please review!


**Chapter 1**

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**One Year Ago**

"Don't pull that trigger."

"Heh… why not?"

Two men hidden by their long hooded grey cloaks stood in tall grassy plains. One was pointing a small palm sized gun at the other, who was standing very nonchalantly.

"They'll find you. They'll hunt you down. You can't escape The Tower for long."

"I'd tell you to watch me but…" The one holding the gun trailed off as he pulled the trigger, shooting the other in the head "You'll be dead."

**Present**

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"C'mon, Gadget, we're almost to Marid!" Keith shouted as he walked his way through the forest, making his way toward towards Marid, a small village located beside a mountain in Harmonia.

Keith wore a red bandana over the top of his head with a white cross and bones, his black hair sticking out from beneath it, slightly covering his green eyes. On his body he wore a sleeveless light gray shirt with a nicked and dented black breast plate. On his right arm he had a long piece of grey material loosely wrapped around it with belts and straps keeping it in place, with a all black glove covering his right hand. On his left arm he had a double layer shoulder pad with little bumps on it that was attached to a strap that went diagonally down his chest. He wore a dark brown belt with many pockets around it with the sheath of for his sword attached to the back. He wears light brown loose leather pants with a patch of dark harder leather on the knees and wears average boots that go slightly up past his ankles.

Gadget's full name is Gadget Z, but Keith just calls him Gadget. Gadget Z is a living robot that was made out of a barrel. As such, the total height of Gadget Z is a bit bigger than your average barrel. When folded all together, it looks exactly like a barrel with spikes on the top. Once in robot form, the sides fold out and the hands flip out that have a thumb and 3 big fingers. A head pops up from the top with the cover being on the top of its head, and under it are two eyes and speaker under them for its mouth. On the bottom, one big tire flips out to the front, and two smaller tires flip out to the back to allow it to move.

"Arr…" Gadget Z mumbled as he rolled along.

After about ten or so minutes, they were at the entrance of the town of Marid. It was a pretty small town, with only a few buildings and houses and one large inn. Keith and Gadget Z first stopped at the inn, where they met the inn keeper Jonah.

"Hello!" She said as the two entered.

"Hey" Keith said back as he approached the counter.

"Need a room for… huh? Wasn't there someone else with you…?"

"Damn barrel…"

Keith looked around the room – by the bar in the inn, there were a dozen or so barrels.

"Before your stupid upgrade, that may've worked" Keith sighed as he kicked the only barrel with spikes on the top of it.

"Damn human" Gadget Z grunted as it went back to robot form.

"… He doesn't really count… does he?" Keith asked Jonah, wondering whether or not he's gonna have to pay for two people.

"Er… I guess… not…"

"Good!"

About 20 minutes later, Keith was sitting in the inn eating a steak and drinking soda, whilst Gadget Z did laps around the table, trying to annoy Keith. There were some other people eating, though one in particular caught Keith's eye. She had long brown hair, wore a big black hat with a red feather in it, and some weird fancy clothes, although she was caring a sword… which seemed rather odd.

"And that blasted 'thing' running around this table only adds insult of what you call 'food'!"

"Would… would you like something different…?" A maid sheepishly asked.

"Of course!"

"Hey!" Keith yelled at her.

"What?"

"Shut up."

"Do you know who I am? I'm Lilly Pendragon!"

"Oh man. I hope the general store has it."

"Has what?" She asked, still angry.

"Caring. 'Cause I'm all friggin' out." Keith said as he wiped his mouth and got up "C'mon Gadget, we're going to bed. We got an early day tomorrow."

"Y-y-you… where do you… hey! Don't ignore me!" Lilly shouted as she got up.

Keith set up his equipment in his room, which like every room in the inn, had two beds, a few dressers, and two windows by the back. Keith never really unpacks – instead, he sleeps with all of his stuff at close range and with all of his clothes on. Gadget Z just goes to a corner and goes into its barrel form.

As soon as Keith began to nod off, some one barged into his room, and without a single thought, Keith reacted, rolling off his bed, a small palm sized gun shooting from the material on his right arm into his hand, pointing it at the person.

"What… what the Hell?" Keith asked, looking up at Lilly.

"What ARE you doing? Were you born without manners, you boorish man?"

"Well… actually…"

"Shut up" Lilly responded as she sat on the other bed.

"The Hell are you doing?"

"I'm forced to sleep here. The idiotic inn keeper ran out of rooms."

"Sometimes... I swear I can hear God laughing at me." Keith said as he shook his head. "Well. Just shuddap, I gotta get up early."

"You… you are not leaving…?" Lilly asked as she took off her hat and began to un-button the blue vest like thing she was wearing over her long sleeve light brown shirt.

"I paid too." Keith said, lying in his bed.

"But I'm changing…"

"And you have a very nice figure."

"I have only known you for an hour and already, I m sure that there is no one else in the world I hate more." Lilly said as she turned around and got undressed.

Keith let out a sigh and turned over and within minutes, fell asleep. He woke up with the rising sun, kicking Gadget Z to wake him up. He woke up around the same time as the inn keeper, Jonah, who made him breakfast and sat down with him.

"So… Keith, was it? What are you here for?"

"I've heard there is treasure on the other side of this mountain. I'm gonna go find – I'm a pirate… kinda." Keith answered whilst eating.

"A pirate? Then where's your ship? Your crew?" She asked.

"Er… aye matey!" Keith shouted, attempting to avoid the question.

"What?"

"Yo ho ho!" Keith said as he finished up his food and quickly left.

"… What?" Jonah said, sitting there puzzled.

"There better be treasure here, human, or man shall become extinct starting with you." Gadget Z complained as he barely kept up with Keith, climbing the mountain.

"C'mon barrel, only a bit further!"

They had been traveling the rugged mountain for hours, just recently, they got to the top, now they were going down the other side, attempting to find the cave that supposedly held the treasure. In the town before Marid that Keith was in, he was talking with fishers who claimed to have heard about an ancient treasure on this side of the mountain. 'Course, he had no way of knowing if they were telling the truth or not, but it didn't matter, Keith had to keep moving, he didn't like to stay in one place for too long, and this treasure gave him the perfect place to go next.

As they got about half way down the other side of the mountain, Keith saw the opening to the cave.

"Stay around the entrance, Gadget, make sure nothin' comes in"

"Alright, human."

Keith climbed down into the cave, lighting a torch he brought, allowing him to see in the dark cave. It went rather deep into the mountain and when he was a bit into it, he began to hear sounds – the sound of flapping wings and the cry of some sort of huge lizard. However, Keith pressed on, turning a bend when he was far in, and coming face to face with the monster.

"… Crap." Keith said in a low voice as he starred up at a medium sized completely black dragon.

The dragon was completely black, in that it had no eyes nor any sort of creases on its skin, as if someone took the outline of a dragon and completely filled it with darkness. However, it of course, had a mouth.

Keith jumped back, taking out his palm sized gun and his sword. He shot a few rounds at the dragon, trying to concentrate the shots at its throat, to break through its scales. When the beast leaped forward again, attempting to bite Keith, Keith dodged to the right and rolled forward, stabbing his sword through its throat where he had shot at, then rolled to the left, taking out a small gunpowder filled bomb and lighting it, throwing it into the dragons mouth once it attempted to bite Keith whilst he was on the ground.

Keith quickly crawled back as fast as he could, the dragon's head exploding, damaging his sword as well. However, there was no blood or anything – when it exploded it just sorta shattered, then the rest of it did as well.

Floating where the body used to be was a symbol – a symbol of a completely black and oddly shaped sun – which hovered for a few moments before shooting at Keith, the symbol then appearing on his hand.

"The Hell…? Is this a Rune…?" Keith asked as he looked at the top of his left hand.

Behind where the dragon was, was a skeleton with a green bandana and some ripped up black and green clothes. Keith took the bandana and wrapped it around his left hand, covering the Rune.

"Of course there is no treasure here. If there were, that'd mean I'd have some luck. Can't have that, huh?" Keith sighed as he made his way out of the cave.

"Human. You took too long. I thought of leaving you." Gadget Z yelled at Keith as he exited the cave.

"Damn barrel."

"Damn human."

The two started back up the mountain – going back took less time since they knew good routes to take and generally knew their way back. Something was strange though… everyone was in their house or in the inn – not a singe person was outside in Marid. He soon began to wonder why… but even sooner got his answer as a bullet flew over his shoulder, his breast plate saving him from any damage.

Automatically acting on instinct he moved quickly behind a house for cover.

"Where is this bastard shooting from, Gadget Z?"

"I believe from the top of the inn."

"Hmm…" Keith began to think of what to do.

He could just throw a few bombs and save him from a giant sized headache, but that'd cause way too much damage.

"Keith! You knew you couldn't hide forever!" The shooter called out.

Gadget Z then zipped out from behind the house they were hiding by, distracting the shooter long enough to allow Keith to get closer to the inn. As he got closer, he dug around in his belt, finding a small smoke bomb. He threw it up and shot it in the air, exploding it into a cloud of smoke, allowing him to slip into the inn.

"You!" Lilly screamed as Keith entered the second floor of the inn.

"Shh!"

"No! This is all your fault!"

He ignored her, creeping through each room, trying to find a way to get to the roof. Lilly unsheathed her sword and pointed it towards Keith.

"Fix this!"

He shook his head and continued to ignore her. He looked out a window to see Gadget Z still wizzing around town. Finally, he found a room with the window open, which was more than likely where the shooter exited onto the roof. However, Lilly's loudmouth had already warned the shooter of Keith's presence within the inn. So, as he neared the window, a small bomb was thrown threw. Keith again automatically acted on instinct and guarded Lilly, shielding the blast from her, using himself as the shield.

The shooter swung in through the window, wearing a grey cloak, holding a long barreled gun with a basic scope on it. The shooter slammed the gun into Keith's back. Ignoring the pain of his wounds, Keith grabbed what was left of his sword, twisted around and stabbed, the shooter guarding with his gun, which became cracked as Keith's snub of a sword slammed into it, then Keith quickly punched him in the stomach with his right hand, shooting his gun out into his palm and attempting to shoot the man in the stomach – however, he was out of ammo.

The cloaked man raised his gun quickly and slammed it into Keith's head. As Keith felt himself loosing consciousness, the Rune on his left hand began to glow and the symbol of the completely black sun appeared above his hand. Right then, the shooter's shadow grew into a black skeleton knight and stabbed him with its sword.

**End of Chapter 1**


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